Lactose intolerance and sleep

[vee11]

We are having problems getting our 3 week old to sleep in the evening - she gets very unsettled around 7pm and then feeds on and off throughout the evening, getting cross and lifting her legs up and needs constant settling, this can go on for about 3/4 hours and then she will finally settle on my partner's chest. Her poos through the night are green as well. She is generally ok in the morning and her poos go back to yellow again for a couple of times. This is relatively new as she was pooing and feeding fine for the first couple of weeks. She is still putting on weight. They think she may be lactose intolerant and are now restricting dairy from my diet to see if that makes a difference. They say it could be colic/stomach bug/intolerance to something????

Oh good luck with this. I am surprised no one with baby experience/training has replied yet perhaps they are all trying to get their own to sleep! But your little one is only 3 weeks old and perhaps her system has not sorted itself out yet. Don't many babies have funny coloured poos at times, and take ages to settle at some time of day or night? If she is fine the rest of the time perhaps this is just the period of day when she gets fed up! She is putting on weight babies dont usually come running as smoothly as a modern new car! (Mother of two, younger one did not sleep for his first THREE YEARS but made up for it later)

hi vee, my ds1 was just like you describe and ds1 is allergic to dairy stuff. Trouble is, we only figured it out when he was 21mo, and even more recently that it was an allergy not an intolerance, which at first appeared to be the case.
You are so much more clued-up than I was when we were there 9 years ago...

Hi vee, I only have a small amount of info in your post to go on and i'm sure tiktok or someone else will be along soon, however to break down your post this would be my conclusions, "cross and lifting legs" is normally wind / tummy pain. constant feeding in the evening is usually referred to as cluster feeding and is very normal, your milk supply is not considered fully established at 3 weeks and by cluster feeding in the evenings your baby is helping to set up your supply and fill up for a few hours. Green poo is generally considered to be a sign of too much foremilk (and can make babies windy) so it may be worth keeping her on each side for longer, it can also help to take your baby off and wind after the 1st letdown and then put back on the same side. ( lots of babies gulp when the let down is fast and take in air)

That failing get your latch checked, at this age its all latch , latch , latch. If your latch isn't good now it can cause supply problems later, so its worth checking.

Personally I think that for a long time it wasn't realised that some babies were reacting to dairy, however it now seems to be the 1st assumption and that isn't ideal either. My dd1 is v sensitive to dairy, not an allergy in the usual sense as she becomes severely congested to the point of being deaf as opposed to being sick.

I am not a qualified expert, but I have b/fed all of my 4 children, my youngest is 15 weeks and I have now been feeding for fifty five months.

You sound as tho you are being very sensible in your approach to the problem and well done on making it this far

By the way, who is they??? HV / dr / midwife / lactation consultant?